Marijuana Use May Protect Against Diabetes and Obesity

Marijuana may help protect against diabetes, according to a study published in The American Journal of Medicine.

In order to come to this conclusion, researchers analyzed data obtained during the National Health and Nutrition Survey between 2005 and 2010, including information from 4,657 questionnaires regarding drug use.

Of the total number of participants, 579 said they were current marijuana users with 1,975 reporting past use. The remaining 2,103 said they had never consumed the drug.

Fasting insulin and glucose were measured via blood samples following a nine-hour fast. Furthermore, participants’ insulin resistance was measured via homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR).

The results showed that those who reported using marijuana in the past month had lower levels of fasting insulin and HOMA-IR and higher levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. All of these trends were weaker among those who reported using marijuana at least once, but not in the past 30 days, suggesting that the effects wear off after a period of time.

Moreover, current users had 16 percent lower fasting insulin levels than participants who reported never having used marijuana.

“It is possible that the inverse association in fasting insulin levels and insulin resistance seen among current marijuana users could be in part due to changes in usage patterns among those with a diagnosis of diabetes,” Dr. Elizabeth Penner, the author of the study, said in reference, for example, to those who are diagnosed with diabetes and told not to smoke. “However, after we excluded those subjects with a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, the associations between marijuana use and insulin levels, HOMA-IR, waist circumference, and HDL-C were similar and remained statistically significant.”

Despite being linked to increased hunger, researchers further discovered significant correlations between marijuana use and smaller waist circumferences, which is also known to decrease a person’s risk of developing diabetes.

Why this is, however, is not clear.

“We desperately need a great deal more basic and clinical research into the short- and long-term effects of marijuana in a variety of clinical settings such as cancer, diabetes, and frailty of the elderly,” researcher and Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Dr. Joseph S. Alpert said.